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It can be difficult to shovel your hard-earned money into a classic car. Between the uncertainty of what would make a good investment, fluctuations in pricing, and the inevitable wrenching and frustration, buying a classic car can feel like a rollercoaster ride without the seatbelt. Thankfully, Hagerty, the Sherlock Holmes of classic cars, has released its top picks for 2017. The list includes fun rides poised to boost in value, with some surprises from the 1980s and even the early 2000s making the cut.
When the 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE lapped the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife in 7:16.04, over 13 seconds quicker than the standard automatic ZL1, it wasn’t the whole story. Seven of the ten quickest American cars ever to tackle that track wear a GM badge, and the reasons why say a lot about how seriously Chevy started taking the world’s toughest test.
A stone-stock-bottomed Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat isn’t supposed to run 9s in the quarter-mile without race gas — but Robert Lamb’s daily-driven Hellcat did exactly that, posting a 9.993 at 137.89 mph on nothing more exotic than 93-octane pump gas. With a modest bolt-on parts list and a dyno tune, Lamb became the first to break the pump-gas 9-second barrier in a Hellcat Charger, proving there’s still plenty left in these supercharged Hemis even without a full built engine.
This 1970 Mustang Mach 1 wears its classic sheetmetal proudly, but under the surface it has reportedly been reworked into a mid-engine platform – a dramatic departure from the factory’s 250 to 300 horsepower 351 Cleveland setup. It is the kind of build that splits opinion at every car show: heresy to purists, genius to anyone chasing a completely different kind of performance.
Facing a sharpened new Camaro, Ford answered with a 2018 Mustang refresh that went well beyond styling: a reworked 5.0-liter V8, a new 10-speed automatic, and genuine GT350-derived suspension and clutch hardware trickling down to the standard GT. Here’s what Ford actually borrowed from its own halo car to keep the Mustang competitive.
Long before Dodge unveiled a single sheet metal panel, FCA’s engineers had already set themselves an almost absurd goal: build a car that could run a 9-second quarter mile and lift its front wheels doing it. The badge they resurrected to wear that achievement, Demon, hadn’t been used since 1971, on a compact nobody really remembers.
Ford built the Shelby GT350’s Voodoo V8 specifically to avoid forced induction, engineering it to rev to a screaming 8,250 rpm instead. A shop in Martinsville, Indiana had other ideas, bolting on twin turbochargers to push that same engine anywhere from 1,000 to 1,400 horsepower. Here’s how Fathouse Fabrications turned Ford’s purist flat-plane V8 into something the factory never intended it to be.
Dodge built the Challenger SRT Demon around a genuinely race-bred trick: an advanced torque reserve launch system that’s a first for any production car. By closing the supercharger bypass valve and cutting fuel to select cylinders above 1,000 rpm in Launch Mode, the system builds boost before the car even moves – and gives the Demon its unmistakable, menacing exhaust note. Here’s how a drag-strip-only technology ended up on a street car.
Ford let the GT500 name sit dormant for five years, and the spy photos that finally leaked in 2017 confirmed the wait was almost over – complete with roll cages, monster wheels, and testing sessions at Virginia International Raceway. Development mules hinted at a supercharged 5.2-liter V8 rated well past 700 horsepower, a number that seemed almost unbelievable for a street-legal Mustang at the time.
Chevrolet revived the Monte Carlo SS nameplate in 1983 to homologate an aero nose for NASCAR – and nearly stumbled doing it, building just 4,714 examples in the model’s rocky debut year. Brett Chmura’s example carries three generations of family shop history under its hood, alongside the L69 305 High Output small-block that powered every one of those rare first-year cars.
Muscle car and pony car get used interchangeably by casual fans, but Car Throttle breaks down why that’s technically wrong — and why the distinction traces back further than most people realize. The difference has less to do with horsepower than with the platform a manufacturer started with in the first place. Find out which side of the line your favorite nameplate actually falls on.
Bob Lutz didn’t come up through internet car forums. He spent decades running product development at GM, which makes his blunt verdict on the sixth-gen Camaro land differently than the usual hot take. His argument isn’t about horsepower or lap times. It’s about design risk, and why Ford’s gamble on a fresh Mustang paid off while Chevy played it safe.
V8Builds, presented by Air Flow Research, pairs a traditional show-and-shine with a genuine SCCA autocross course – turning a static parking lot event into something builders can actually drive hard. The second installment at Auto Club Speedway topped its debut at Willow Springs with a bigger crowd and deeper car count. Classic muscle, modern muscle, resto-mods, and pro touring builds are all welcome. Here’s what set it apart from a typical car show.
Rutledge Wood’s 1970 Dodge Charger carries a genuine Petty Racing pedigree, purchased new by a teenage Kyle Petty who had the run of his family’s NASCAR fab shop. The car stayed in the Petty family for decades before Wood bought it straight from Kyle’s son Austin, original 383/4-speed drivetrain intact. Fresh Wilwood brakes and a prototype RideTech suspension got it ready for serious miles. Here’s the story behind the Charger that headlined Wood’s 2017 Power Tour run.